Finding a Match
by koalakatherine
Summary: Tom Riddle has accomplished all he can at Hogwarts, and its left him rather unentertained. That is until a famous witch makes her way into his year and he is forced to reconsider his boredom. Or, What would have happened differently in 1943 if Crystal Higgins showed up.
1. chapter 1

Chapter One

Tom was special. He had always known it, even in the orphanage when he was mocked by his "peers". But it wasn't until Dumbledore showed up to tell him about the Wizarding world that he could prove it.

At the time, he was naive enough to think going to this school would help him find real friends, ones who could engage in conversation with him and challenge him and who would always stick by him. After arriving, he was proven wrong, and Tom hated being wrong.

Post-realization of the ineptitude of his fellow students, he decided that he didn't need friends...he needed followers. Having magic didn't make him special, his power and ambition to gain the knowledge to use it better than any other wizard was. And this time Dumbledore showing up wouldn't be enough to prove it.

Knowing that he was the smartest person in his year, well really the school, he didn't overly study for courses (always enough to make sure to all highest marks on every test in every course). He tended to focus all his spare time in the pursuit of all magical knowledge, and a particular hobby in the dark arts.

Respect within his house grew as he proved himself despite his mysterious half-blood background that his pureblooded housemates valued with dismay. He acted like the perfect student in front of all outsiders. Outsiders were considered everyone not in The Knights, which included almost exclusively of students from powerful families in Slytherin, like Edward Lestrange and Abraxas Malfoy.

But after building his influence and becoming a prefect next in line to become head boy, he was...bored. Everybody was in his spell, "the perfect wizard boy", girls would practically fall at his feet and guys would always try to be more like him. Teachers would prize him as their favorite student and think he could do no wrong. All anyone had saw of him was what he wanted them to see.

He had already proved himself and now he was simply bored.

It was a Monday night dinner at Hogwarts where everything changed. Tom's 6th year has just begun about 2 months ago and he was already caught up on all his classes teachings for the rest of the year. He sighed in boredom as he sat down next to his "friends" at dinner.

All day he had heard girls (and guys) gossiping about some new girl. He had no interest in listening to anything after that because transfer students come and go through the years. Nothing special.

But the gossiping didn't stop and he soon realized after he sat down that he was gonna have to pretend like he cared as Walburga started talking directly to him.

"Have you heard, Riddle?", screeched Walburga (Tom was sure she was half banshee because her voice simply made him cringe).

"Heard what, Black?", Tom said in as uninterested but polite tone as possible.

"Crystal Higgins is transferring to Hogwarts today! I heard from Mills who heard it from Pawge who heard it from a Ravenclaw who is assistant to the Headmaster"

"Who is Crystal Higgins?", Tom said puzzled, and annoyed.

"Well, despite being a muggle-born, she is very accomplished. She is the youngest person, and only female, every allowed to compete in the Professional Duelling League. She also is a huge war hero in France against Grindelwald. I even heard she was Dumbledore's right hand", Walburga practically rambled before being cut off by the Headmaster silencing the students.

"Hello young witches and wizards!", Headmaster Dippet confidently and loudly announced, "As you have probably heard, we have a very special transfer student coming in. Crystal Higgins is by far the brightest witch I have met in all my years as a professor and Headmaster, and I am happy to be a hand in the rest of her education. Please welcome her with open arms and be patient while we sort her into a house"

With that, the a girl in beauxbaton robes emerged from a door in the teachers eating area with a smile on her face. It seemed genuine to others, but there was something behind it that Tom thought wasn't.

On her way to Dippet something seemed to have caught her eye. She quickly deviated from her route and headed straight to...Dumbledore?!

She looked elated to see him and clearly, as Tom looked around, he wasn't he only confused one. Suddenly it was quiet and all you could hear was Crystal shouting, "Albus, I've missed you", before hugging the renowned professor.

Now that caught Riddle's interest.

After about 20 seconds of silence had past before Crystal realized she had an audience to her heart-felt moment. This prompted her to quickly say her goodbyes before heading to Headmaster Dippet and the sorting hat.

Awkwardly, she shook his hand and had the hat placed on her head.

The sorting hat boomed, "Ah, today we have a special one...oh, I see, very intelligent, but definitely not a Ravenclaw...kind but that's about all you have in common with a Hufflepuff...brave, very brave, but you don't belong in Gryffindor... SLYTHERIN".

The room was in shock. 'That had to be a mistake', Tom thought. And everyone around him were thinking the same thing, because Crystal was a muggleborn and no muggleborn had EVER been sorted into Slytherin previously.

It was just common knowledge that the pureblooded standpoint in the prestigious house was not to be trifled with. And Crystal was smart enough, Tom hoped, to know that. But she was...smiling?! 'No, that definitely can't be right'

But she was definitely smiling when she walked right up to the Slytherin table and exclaimed, "Hi, well you already probably know who I am and what I am, so I won't introduce myself."

And with that, she left to go sit alone at the end of the table while everyone talked about her.

She didn't really seem to care all that much.

This was going to be a much more interesting year then Tom had previously expected.


	2. Chapter 2

Crystal was sitting at the end of the Slytherin table secluded from the rest of the house. She didn't seem upset or irritated but more indifferent and maybe even...pleased?

Her mysteriousness caused Riddle to spend the remainder of dinner trying (and failing) to not stare at her. Higgins somehow knew this and caught him in the act which seemed to be enough to cause him to hold back from the urge of looking in her direction.

Soon, dinner was over and everyone made their way out of the hall to their respective houses dorms. On his way out he was pulled aside by Professor Slughorn, Slytherin head of house. And standing right beside him was none other than Crystal.

"Hello, Mr.Riddle. This is Mrs. Crystal Higgins, a witch whom has proved herself to be on her way to become one of my favorite students, alongside you of course." Slughorn rattled off before turning and smiling toward Crystal, "Tom is by far the most intelligent young man I have ever had the courtesy of meeting and he is also the head prefect of Slytherin. I was hoping he would be able to give you a tour of the castle and show you the ropes of our prestigious house. Or perhaps you would prefer me to give you the tour?"

'How ridiculous, Slughorn is making more of a fool of himself than usual with all this ass-kissing' Tom thought while giving the two one of his signature fake smiles.

Suddenly Higgins spoke up, "Oh Professor Slughorn, it's quite all right. I'm sure Tom here will be a perfectly suitable tour guide. You should probably get to your quarters soon, teaching is hard work and you must need your sleep."

After stating that last part Riddle was quite sure she was trying to get rid of him. Maybe she was more Slytherin then he initially thought?

To that note Professor Slughorn agreed with her and bid them both a polite farewell. A couple awkward moments passed and Tom was unsure how to break the silence but Higgins did it for him.

"Wow, does he always ass-kiss that much?"

Tom chuckled at that. 'Wait, did I just almost laugh?!?' Riddle internally screeched.

"Ah. Yes he does tend to do that, acts like Hogwarts is his own networking playground." Tom let out.

"Oh well, I get it a lot so it may irritate me quite a bit. Shall we get on with the grand tour?"

With that, Riddle guided her through the castle and showed her the classrooms on her schedule. To his surprise her schedule was quite similar to his. Everything was going smoothly until she suddenly stopped him.

She hesitated before saying, "Can we maybe stop by Dumbledore's office for a minute?"

She had once again surprised him.

"Oh ummmm, I'm not sure if he'll be there, but we can stop by"

With that said, they walked side by side for 5 or 10 minutes in complete silence. For some reason, Tom couldn't think about facts about Hogwarts like he normally would tell during tours. All he could think about was the enigma he was walking with.

His thoughts were interrupted by their arrival at the office. "Well here you go Higgins."

"I'll be out quick," her words stumbled out fast as she walked in and was greeted by the professors smile and outstretched arms. Then the door closed.

Of course, Tom wouldn't miss an opportunity to listen in on the private conversation. So he put his ear to the door. This proved absolutely useless as, to his annoyance, the room had a silence charm protecting their exchange of words.

Inside the room where Riddle couldn't hear, Crystal and Dumbledore said their hellos and exchanged words on how their comrades in the war against Grindelwald were.

"How's Trindle doing? He was hit with that nasty dark spell that was still healing when I left." Dumbledore questioned.

Sadly Crystal shook her head before saying,"Healers couldn't stop it from spreading to his head. After he went crazy, his family thought it best to hand him over to a facility".

"That's disappointing, he was such a good man. Is everyone else doing well?"

"Mostly. A lot of rebuilding is going on and most of ya are still trying to deal with all the loss. Some of Grindelwald's followers still randomly attack in unorganized raids, so others are protecting cities."

"Ah. Sounds like everyone is doing much better than when I left. But I'm guessing you're here for something other than catching up?"

"You've caught me." Crystal stated while easing her arms into her robes, "I'm here to give you this"

She placed the elder wand on the table. Albus was shocked.

"I thought it was lost or destroyed. How did you get it?"

"I knew he had it before the duel so I simply kept an eye out for it. Apparently, he gave it to Repongus before he died," Crystal said before he asked more questions.

"You saw Repongus? Are you alright?" To that Crystal nodded so Albus moved on. "Well thank you for retrieving this for me, I think we should talk about this later. You do have to get back to your dorm and get some rest."

"I think you're right Albus...I mean Professor Dumbledore" she giggled before standing up and saying good night.

Tom was annoyed. He had thought that bringing her here would at least satisfy his curiosity a little, but as it turns out it only fueled it.

Suddenly, the door opened and Higgins emerged. She didn't look either sad or happy. Her indifference was back and did nothing to make him any less annoyed.

"Well, I think it's time to get to the dorms, all these new things are causing me to feel quite tired." Higgins sighed out.

Riddle nodded and escorted her, as politely as he could manage in his irritated state, to the dorms.

"This is your stop. The girls dorms are charmed so wizards cannot enter."

"Thank you, Tom. It's been...interesting."

With that she left into the room leaving Riddle standing there shocked at 2 things. One, she had called him Tom, which absolutely no one did. And two, what did she mean by interesting? He had done everything in the manner he usually did! At this point, most witches would be throwing themselves at him!

Yes, this year was definitely going to be much more interesting then he previously thought.


End file.
